Why a dictionary?

GLP-1 medicine has its own vocabulary. Some of it is clinical jargon from endocrinology. Some of it is community shorthand invented by people who've been on this journey for months and don't have time to spell things out. Some of it is India-specific — names, brands, regulatory acronyms, and pharmacy realities that don't exist anywhere else.

We put this dictionary together because the single biggest barrier we see in first consultations is not the science of the drug — it's the assumption, by everyone around the new user, that they already know the language. They don't. And they shouldn't have to learn it from comment threads.

Here are the 30 terms worth knowing before your first shot, grouped into drugs and molecules, the pen and the dosing, the journey metrics and stages, side effects and body changes, and the India-specific layer.

Part 1

The drugs and the molecules

1. GLP-1

Short for glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone your gut already produces in small amounts after meals. It tells your pancreas to release insulin, slows down how fast your stomach empties, and signals fullness to your brain. The current generation of weight-loss drugs are GLP-1 receptor agonists — they mimic this hormone at much higher and longer-lasting doses than your body produces naturally.

2. GIP

Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, a second gut hormone with overlapping effects on insulin and appetite. Why this matters: Mounjaro (tirzepatide) acts on both GLP-1 and GIP receptors, while Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus act only on GLP-1. The dual mechanism is part of why tirzepatide tends to produce faster and larger weight loss.

3. Semaglutide

The active molecule in Ozempic (the diabetes-labelled brand), Wegovy (the obesity-labelled brand), and Rybelsus (the oral pill version). It's now off-patent in India, which is why you're seeing a wave of generic Indian brands at a fraction of the price. See our full semaglutide guide for the deeper science.

4. Tirzepatide

The active molecule in Mounjaro (and Zepbound in the US — same drug, different brand). Still on-patent in India, which is why no generic tirzepatide exists yet. Expected generic timeline: 2031 at the earliest, though biosimilars may arrive sooner. The tirzepatide guide covers the SURPASS and SURMOUNT trial evidence.

5. Mounjaro

Eli Lilly's tirzepatide brand. The community's default reference point. Available in India as a KwikPen in 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, and 15 mg doses. The 12.5 and 15 mg pens are less commonly stocked. The Mounjaro page compares it to Wegovy, Ozempic, and generic semaglutide on price and clinical evidence.

6. Ozempic / Wegovy / Rybelsus

Novo Nordisk's semaglutide brands. Ozempic is the diabetes-labelled injectable. Wegovy is the obesity-labelled injectable (same molecule, higher dosing schedule). Rybelsus is the oral pill — convenient, but generally considered the least effective of the three because oral bioavailability is poor.

7. The Indian generic semaglutide brands

Since the semaglutide patent expired in India, a number of domestic pharma companies have launched their own versions, often at 70–90% lower prices than Ozempic. The community names you'll see most often:

These are not identical products. Pen quality, dose increments, and clinical support vary. Don't pick one on price alone. Note: Yurpeak (Cipla) is sometimes listed under semaglutide in community posts but is actually tirzepatide — people confuse this constantly.

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Part 2

The pen and the dosing

8. KwikPen

The Mounjaro injection device. Looks like a chunky marker. Each pen contains four full weekly doses plus a small residual amount (more on that below). You dial, you press, you wait until the click count finishes. Stored in the fridge until first use, then stable at room temperature for up to 21 days per Lilly's official guidance.

9. Titration

The clinical term for gradual dose escalation. Standard Mounjaro protocol: start at 2.5 mg for 4 weeks, then 5 mg for 4 weeks, then step up as needed. Titration is not arbitrary — it's the dose schedule the trial data was built on, and skipping steps is the leading cause of severe side effects in new users.

10. The "golden dose"

Community slang for the fifth dose that can be extracted from a KwikPen even though it's officially a 4-dose pen. The pens are slightly overfilled, and users have figured out that with a U-40 insulin syringe you can extract roughly one extra dose worth of medication per pen. This effectively saves you ~20% on monthly cost.

Lilly has begun rolling out a redesigned pen without this surplus, so the golden dose is gradually disappearing. The extraction is also not officially endorsed by the manufacturer, and sterility must be maintained meticulously. If you're going to do it, do it with clinical guidance.

11. U-40 / U-100 insulin syringes

The two syringe types used by Indian diabetic patients and now by GLP-1 users who do dose extraction or use vial-format generics. U-100 is the global standard. U-40 is older but still common in India. The unit markings are different, so the same syringe filled to the same number is delivering different amounts depending on type. Confusing two of them is a common dosing error.

For tirzepatide extraction from a 10 mg KwikPen with a U-40 syringe, the rough conversion that circulates in the community is: 6 units = 2.5 mg, 12 units = 5 mg, 18 units = 7.5 mg, 24 units = 10 mg.

12. Click counting

The KwikPen delivers the dose via a series of mechanical clicks (60 clicks = full dose for some pen formats). Some users count clicks to verify the dose was delivered correctly, especially after the Tata 1mg home-nursing overdose incident earlier this year. If you self-inject, you'll learn to feel the rhythm quickly.

13. Bridge / maintenance dose

A lower dose used to hold weight after you've reached your goal. The clinical idea is that the dose required to lose weight is often higher than the dose required to maintain weight. Some users bridge from Mounjaro at goal weight to a lower-dose generic semaglutide for maintenance, both to save money and to reduce side-effect exposure long-term.

Part 3

The journey metrics and stages

14. SW / CW / GW

Starting Weight / Current Weight / Goal Weight. You'll see these in almost every update post. A typical signature might read "SW 107 / CW 84.6 / GW 69, 5'6", 23F." It's the community's standardised way of giving context in a single line.

15. NSV — Non-Scale Victory

The single most important concept on the journey. An NSV is any sign of progress that doesn't show up on the scale: fitting into old jeans, sitting cross-legged for the first time in years, your blood pressure normalising, getting your first natural period after a decade of PCOS, no longer fearing a plastic chair at a family wedding, your watch suddenly being loose. The scale lies more than your body does. NSVs keep people going through plateaus.

16. TDEE

Total Daily Energy Expenditure — your body's actual calorie burn including basal metabolic rate, daily activity, exercise, and the thermic effect of food. As you lose weight, your TDEE drops, which is why plateaus happen and why "the same diet stopped working." Most GLP-1 users underestimate this drop and over-restrict calories as a result, which accelerates muscle loss. You can estimate yours with our TDEE calculator.

17. Calorie deficit

The gap between calories in and TDEE. A 500 kcal/day deficit produces roughly 0.5 kg/week of weight loss, in theory. On GLP-1, appetite suppression makes hitting a deficit easy — sometimes too easy, which is why protein and minimum-calorie thresholds become important.

18. Appetite suppression / "suppression"

The drug's signature effect: you simply stop feeling hungry. The community uses "suppression" as a noun ("my suppression isn't kicking in this week"). Suppression isn't constant — it tends to be strongest in the first 2–3 days after a shot and weakens before the next one, especially at lower doses.

19. Food noise

This is the term that resonates emotionally with almost everyone on GLP-1. Food noise is the constant, intrusive mental chatter about food — what's for the next meal, what's in the fridge, what you're craving, what you "shouldn't" eat — that most people with obesity live with for decades without realising it's abnormal.

Within days of starting GLP-1, this noise often disappears. People describe it as one of the most liberating experiences of their lives. "I forgot to eat" becomes a real sentence. This isn't a side effect — it's arguably the drug's most important effect, and the one that explains why willpower-based approaches fail for so many people.

20. Plateau / stall

A period where the scale stops moving despite the same routine. Almost universal — most users hit one or more plateaus during their journey. Causes are usually some mix of: TDEE has dropped, water retention from strength training or salt, muscle gain offsetting fat loss, or simply biology resetting. The instinct to immediately increase dose is usually premature. The instinct to drastically cut calories often makes it worse.

21. The Woosh effect

A satisfying community term for what happens after a long stall. You sit at the same weight for 2–4 weeks, sometimes longer, then over a few days the scale drops 1–2 kg in a single "woosh." The leading theory is that fat cells temporarily fill with water during the loss process and then release it in bursts. Whether or not the science fully checks out, the pattern is real and worth understanding so you don't quit during the stall.

22. Maintenance

The phase after you've reached your goal weight and are now trying to hold it. Most users continue some form of GLP-1 — either a lower Mounjaro dose, a switch to generic semaglutide, or extended dosing intervals. The community is just beginning to produce its first "graduates" who've held maintenance for 6+ months, so long-term Indian data is still being written in real time.

23. Rebound

The weight regain that often follows stopping GLP-1 cold turkey without a maintenance protocol. Rebound is not unique to GLP-1 — it happens after any weight loss method when the underlying biology and habits haven't been rebuilt. But because GLP-1 produces faster and larger losses, the rebound risk is higher and more visible if you stop without a plan.

24. Graduation

Community slang for reaching your goal weight and transitioning to maintenance. Used affectionately. You'll see celebratory posts ("I graduated I guess") that get warm replies from people still in the middle of their journey.

Part 4

Side effects and body changes

25. Sulphur burps

The single most-complained-about GI side effect. Burps that smell like rotten eggs — caused by hydrogen sulphide gas produced as food sits longer in the stomach due to GLP-1's gastric-emptying effect. Triggers are worse with high-sulphur foods (eggs, garlic, certain dals, broccoli, cabbage). Sugar-free gum, smaller meals, and avoiding the trigger foods around dose day help. If they're severe and persistent, that's a signal to talk to your doctor about dose adjustment. The full side-effects guide covers what's normal vs what's a red flag.

26. Ozempic face

Loss of facial fat that makes the face look hollower or older, especially in cheeks and temples. Not unique to Ozempic — it happens with any rapid weight loss method — but the name stuck because of how visible it was on early high-profile users. Slowing the rate of weight loss, hydration, sleep, and strength training all help. Cosmetic interventions (filler, RF, microneedling) exist if it bothers you, but most of the effect stabilises within 6–12 months of reaching maintenance.

27. Loose skin

Skin that doesn't snap back fully after large weight losses, particularly common after 20+ kg losses, in users over 35, and with very fast loss timelines. Strength training and slower-paced losses are the main preventives. Severe cases sometimes go on to skin removal surgery. Most people overestimate how bad theirs will be — moderate looseness often improves significantly over 12–18 months.

28. Hair fall (telogen effluvium)

Temporary hair shedding that often peaks 3–4 months into a GLP-1 journey. The mechanism is well-known and isn't GLP-1-specific — it happens after any major physiological stress including childbirth and rapid weight loss. The two evidence-based preventives are adequate protein intake (around 1.2–1.6 g/kg of goal body weight per day) and confirmed-adequate levels of iron, ferritin, vitamin D, and B12. Most hair grows back within 6–9 months of stabilising.

Part 5

The India-specific layer

29. Schedule H

The prescription class under Indian drug regulation that GLP-1s fall into. Schedule H drugs legally require a prescription from a registered medical practitioner. In practice, enforcement varies wildly across pharmacies. The community uses "Schedule H drug" as shorthand for "this isn't a supplement, stop treating it casually" — usually in posts pushing back against people taking GLP-1s for cosmetic 5 kg losses.

30. CDSCO, batch numbers, and the fake-pen problem

CDSCO is the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, India's drug regulator. When a counterfeit batch of Mounjaro is detected — as has happened multiple times in 2025–26, including via Apollo Pharmacy and others — CDSCO and the state FDAs flag specific batch numbers that the public should check before using.

Your KwikPen's batch number is printed on the carton and the pen itself. Verifying it against the flagged list is now a basic safety step, not paranoia. If you have any doubt, Eli Lilly India's pharmacovigilance line will confirm whether your batch is authentic. The community has independently surfaced and verified several fake batches this year alone — sometimes faster than the pharmacies that sold them.

Bonus terms worth knowing

A note on using this dictionary

Knowing the vocabulary won't make you an expert, but it will make your first consultation faster, your reading of the community more useful, and your own self-tracking more precise. Most importantly, it'll help you ask better questions of your doctor.

If you're starting your GLP-1 journey and want a clinical team that speaks both this language and the medical one, that's the gap Kaivo was built for — evidence-based GLP-1 care, in India, without the noise.

Have a term you've seen and we missed? Drop it in our community thread and we'll add it to the next edition.

A note on community slang: Terms like "golden dose," "the woosh," "graduation," and "food noise" are community shorthand — useful for reading posts and talking with peers, not formal clinical terminology. Always double-check anything that affects your dosing with a registered medical practitioner before acting on it.